I have the Perry French, they will be next up. I am going for a Sharpe Practice set up, so will only need a couple of boxes plus skirmishes....I think my days of "in the grand manner" big battalions are over now.....

Hi Jon

Yes, black acrylic. However, not quite that simple....I use Vallejo model air black diluted with Vallejo airbrush thinner. I think the slightly different formula allows the paint to flow better. The undercoat was Tamiya grey cellulose decanted from the spray can, thinned with Mr colour and put on with an airbrush...I simply paint the wash over the figures and allow it to dry. Figures are upright when drying as I want the shadows to be at the bottom of items. Drying time is about five minutes.

Hi John

Thanks for the support mate, appreciated....

Hi Jimbo

28mm is a little complicated. It used to be 25mm, which is 1/72, but figure manufacturers stretched the limits to get heroic sized figures, and eventually this morphed into 28mm. It is apparently about 1/56th scale.

Hi Peter

Welcome aboard....see my answer to Jon for details of the blackwash. As I say, I think the secret is Model air paint with airbrush thinner....seems to increase the flow slightly. Still not as good as my old technique using diluted oil paint, but you can't do that under acrylics (guess how I found out....). It might be a little crude for your scale but works in this application over the slightly exaggerated detail of wargames troops.

Thanks for all the support....I thought I was hitting a niche here and would generate little interest, not the first thing I have got wrong over the years

First off, a shot showing the size of these things in context. Everybody has Vallejo bottles, so I used one for reference...

The first person to say they haven't got one of these pots so can't work out the comparison can buy their own beer

I have had a couple of people ask about the wash I used so here is a little more detail regarding the technique...

The first step is to clean and assemble the figures just like any other kit.

Then, I wash the assembled figures with dilute washing up liquid and scrub them with a large soft brush, in this case a one inch Daler Rowney Graduate oval wash brush. I then rinse them with clean water, using the same brush, obviously rinsing it first.

This should get rid of any oil from your fingers and any residual dust from assembly.

I then spray the clean figure with Tamiya grey primer. In my case I decanted this and put it through the airbrush, but using it straight from the can will work just as well. For brighter figures (Napoleonic British red coats come to mind) I would probably use fine white primer so the finish isn't dulled too much, red being transparent and showing the undercoat more.

Next is the magic wash.....

To make this I use Vallejo Model Air Black, number 71.057. I dilute this approximately 50% using Vallejo Airbrush Thinner, number 71.161.

This is applied liberally all over the figure using a number 5 or 6 round brush.. The brush make is relatively unimportant, but for the completest, in this case I used a Winsor and Newton Cotman 111.

I hold the figure in the orientation to which it will finally be based or mounted while applying the wash. Remember this is a wash, not a filter, so it should puddle around the detail. Make sure to cover all of the figure as unpainted areas may show as slightly patchy under the final finish.

Allow the black to puddle around the detail, and if it gets too heavy, remove excess with a dry brush. This is far easier to do than describe, as it is basically a matter of feel rather than slavishly following instructions.

OK ,technique again.....so I don't have to keep typing it, all paints and numbers are Valllejo model colour unless stated...

The faces and hands are first undercoated with Light brown, 70929.

They are then given a wash of Vallejo Game colour Flesh Wash, 73.204. This restates the shadows after the initial painting.

Next is first highlight. This is made from 50% Light brown 70.929 and 50% Sunny Skin Tone 70.845.

Next is second highlight. This is made from 25% light brown 70.929 and 75% Sunny Skin Tone 70.845.

No blending was used as I think this is simply not possible at this scale, and the important thing is to give shape to the important parts of the face. I also didn't bother with eyes as they are simply not clear enough to see under the Shakoes..

Open mouths were painted in with Hull Red 70.985.

Lower lips were painted in with Old rose 70.944.

Following that the hair was painted in.

For the dark brown hair I used Model Air Black 71.057 as the undercoat. I then highlighted the hair with Chocolate Brown 70.872 followed by 50% Chocolate Brown 70.872 and 50% Beige brown 70.875.

For the light brown hair I undercoated with Chocolate Brown 70.872 followed by highlights of the 50% Chocolate and Beige brown mix and second highlights of Beige Brown.

The Blonde hair was undercoated with Chocolate Brown, highlighted with Beige Brown and then highlighted again with Yellow Ochre 70.913.

In all cases when painting hair, highlight the mass of the hair, giving shape and volume rather than trying to paint each individual hair. If you try this I am sure you will either go mad or go Simon T....

The astute will realise that I only used about four paint mixes to get three hair types, sometimes mixing a little on the brush. This is part of the "speed painting" technique necessary if you are raising an army. You need to minimise the effort required to mix paints or you don't make sufficient progress....the aim of this type of modelling is to get an army on the tabletop, not to simply have a few figures to look at...

By the way, painting all of this took less time to do than to type it up....I would say about thirty minutes in all....

Thanks Tim. Just had a squint - very nice indeed! It's got me thinking that my Brits could do with some opposition. Maybe I should bite the bullet and get a few 40mm Frogs. Though I did notice on another site that Perry's are planning a set of early Peninsular War British Dragoons in bicornes. My old man and my brother were both donkey wallopers. Hmmm...... British heavies at Salamanca maybe?